There is much to be gained if animists, those who regularly experience insight as communications from other-than-human persons, and academics come into conversation with one another (cf. G. Harvey 2006b). Such communications can help disrupt the human-nature binary that is consistently identified as a key root cause of many current environmental problems. It can also enable access to much wisdom and innovative insights, if humans are willing and able to listen. Yet structures and rules defined by a culture that generally does not support animism can make it particularly challenging to research through animism as both epistemology and ontology, particularly in most academic contexts. Given that particular ways of knowing and being have higher status than others (Bowers 1997), there are plenty of manuscripts that talk about animism, but few explicitly identify animism as the epistemological and ontological framework through which they are researched and “written”.

Drawing on my doctoral dissertation which examines ways in which an over-reliance on Western forms of rationality limit our ability to effectively conduct research which honours and engages with the more-than-human natural world, I briefly outline a research methodology and methods that move beyond the Newtonian view of matter and supports engagement with a universe of “knowers”, many of whom are not human (Stuckey 2010). I also highlight the role of discourse in maintaining animist research as an (im)possibility, and identify ways in which hypertextual representation of research can support openings to animist sensibilities.